If you’ve ever spent a cold evening in the company of Walt Longmire, you know that Absaroka County isn't just a setting. It’s a character. It's a place where the wind howls through the floorboards and secrets stay buried in the snow for decades. When Craig Johnson released Next to Last Stand, the 16th novel in the series, fans weren’t just looking for another mystery. They were looking for a reckoning.
There's something uniquely heavy about this book. It deals with the weight of history—not just the history of the characters we’ve grown to love over twenty years, but the history of the American West itself. Most people think they’re just getting a "whodunit." They're wrong. Honestly, this is a book about obsession. It’s about how a single piece of art can drive men to madness and murder.
The Mystery of Custer’s Last Rally
The plot kicks off with a death at a local assisted living facility. Standard stuff for a sheriff, right? Wrong. When Tom Morey dies, he leaves behind a shoebox filled with a cool million dollars. But the money isn't the real story. The real story is a giant, dusty canvas hidden in his room.
It’s a painting. Not just any painting, though. It’s a copy of Cassilly Adams’ Custer’s Last Rally.
Now, if you’re a history buff, your ears just perked up. The original was a massive 12-by-32-foot beast of a painting that toured the country before being destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry’s headquarters in 1946. Or was it? That’s the central hook. Next to Last Stand dives deep into the conspiracy theories surrounding this lost masterpiece. Walt and his best friend, Henry Standing Bear, find themselves chasing a ghost that has been missing for over seventy years.
Why the Art World is More Dangerous than the Frontier
Art theft isn't something we usually associate with the rugged terrain of Wyoming. We think of cattle rustling or drug running. But Johnson flips the script here. He leans into the idea that provenance—the record of ownership of a work of art—is a matter of life and death.
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Walt is getting older. You can feel it in his bones in this book. He’s slower to get up. He’s more contemplative. When he starts digging into the history of the Anheuser-Busch lithographs (the famous versions of the Custer painting that hung in every bar in America), he’s not just doing police work. He’s trying to understand his own legacy. He’s looking at a world that is moving on without him.
The investigation takes him to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. This is a real place, by the way. I’ve been there. It’s a massive complex that houses some of the most significant artifacts of the American West. Johnson uses the setting perfectly. He doesn't just describe it; he makes you feel the hushed, reverent atmosphere of a museum where the past is preserved in glass cases.
The Dynamics of the Longmire Crew
You’ve got the usual suspects here, but their roles feel shifted. Vic Moretti is as sharp and foul-mouthed as ever, but there’s an underlying tension regarding her relationship with Walt that never quite settles. It’s messy. It’s human.
Henry Standing Bear remains the moral compass. His knowledge of Cheyenne history and his perspective on the Battle of the Little Bighorn (or the Battle of the Greasy Grass) provides the necessary counter-narrative to the glorification of Custer. This isn't just a book about a painting; it's a book about how we choose to remember the losers of history.
One of the most interesting aspects of Next to Last Stand is how it handles the "old vs. new" dynamic. Walt is a man of the 20th century trying to navigate the 21st. He uses his intuition and his boots on the ground, but he’s increasingly confronted by a world of digital footprints and high-tech forensics. It’s a struggle. It’s relatable to anyone who feels the world is moving just a bit too fast.
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What People Get Wrong About the Ending
Without spoiling the specific "aha!" moment, a lot of readers felt the ending was abrupt. I disagree.
The ending of Next to Last Stand isn't about a dramatic shootout or a tidy confession. It’s about the realization that some things are better left lost. The obsession with the painting—the "last stand" of the title—is a trap. Walt realizes that chasing the past can prevent you from living in the present.
The title itself is a double entendre. It refers to the Custer painting, obviously. But it also refers to Walt himself. Is he on his next to last stand? Is the end of his career (and perhaps his life) looming? Johnson keeps us guessing. He doesn't give us the satisfaction of a "happily ever after" because life doesn't work that way in the High Plains.
Factual Context: The Real Painting
To understand why this book works, you have to understand the real-life history of the artwork.
- The Original Artist: Cassilly Adams painted the original Custer’s Last Rally in the mid-1880s.
- The Fire: It was officially reported destroyed in a fire at Fort Bliss in 1946.
- The Lithographs: Anheuser-Busch bought the rights and produced over 150,000 lithographs. This made it one of the most-seen images in American history.
- The Discrepancy: Rumors have persisted for decades that the painting destroyed in the fire was a copy, and the original was spirited away.
Johnson uses these real-world facts to ground his fiction. When Walt is researching the painting, he’s looking at the same history you can find in a textbook. That’s the hallmark of high-quality crime fiction—the line between reality and story becomes so thin you can’t see it anymore.
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Actionable Insights for Longmire Fans
If you’re planning to dive into Next to Last Stand or if you’ve just finished it and want more, here are a few ways to deepen the experience:
Check out the real history. Don't just take the book's word for it. Research the Battle of the Greasy Grass from the perspective of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho. It changes how you view the "heroism" depicted in the painting.
Visit the Cody Museum. If you’re ever in Wyoming, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West is a must-see. It puts the scale of the "Old West" into perspective. You can see the actual types of firearms and art discussed in the novels.
Read the short stories. Many people skip the novellas and short story collections like Wait for Sign. Don't. They provide essential context for the smaller character beats that pay off in the main novels.
Watch the art, don't just see it. Look up a high-resolution version of the Anheuser-Busch lithograph. Look at the chaos. Look at the inaccuracies (the soldiers' uniforms, the hair lengths). Understanding why the painting is "bad history" helps you understand why it’s "great art" in the context of the book.
Next to Last Stand isn't the end of the road for Walt Longmire, but it’s a significant milestone. It’s a book that asks us what we’re willing to sacrifice for a piece of the past. It’s gritty, it’s thoughtful, and honestly, it’s one of the best examples of why Craig Johnson remains a titan of the genre.
To fully appreciate the narrative arc, track the recurring themes of "lost things" throughout the previous three books. You'll notice a pattern of Walt recovering items—and people—that were thought to be gone forever, which sets the stage for the thematic weight of the Custer painting. Pay close attention to the dialogue between Walt and the younger deputies; it reveals more about his internal state than his monologues ever do.